"Being a welfare mother entitled everyone to make judgements about me and my choices. Once when I was in the grocery store, the woman in line behind me saw my foodstamps and peered into my cart. "Mushrooms," she sniffed. "Fresh beans when canned are half the price. Artichoke hearts, for heaven's sake!"

The capability of mankind to be utter assholes to each other is truly amazing at times.

"Once heat and rent were paid, I had $10 per month left for everything that food stamps didn't cover - laundry soap, tampons, everything. And this was in Massachusetts, which had one of the highest welfare allotments. I don't know how people in other states survived."

Gosh, I hope she didn't have a fridge and microwave at the same time - she wouldn't be poor anymore, according to Fox.

I lived in a tenement apartment with lead-painted walls. It was the cheapest option besides subsidized housing, which had a waiting list of several years. Once heat and rent were paid, as well as payments on the Cadillac, interest on my catamaran and docking fees, stable costs for my dressage horse, and my two iPhone 5s that I time-traveled to 2012 to get and signed up for the most expensive talk and data plan, I had $10 per month left for everything that food stamps didn't cover - laundry soap, tampons, everything. And this was in Massachusetts, which had one of the highest welfare allotments. I don't know how people in other states survived.

ginandbacon:It's just shameful that we demonize these women and punish their children.

It's not shameful, it's immoral. I've yet to come across a religion that would do less than call that treatment immoral. And nearly every atheist I have met still has morals, of which this would still violate.

If you aren't a psychopath or Objectivist, ostracizing and belittling the poor and less fortunate should strike you as brutal and wrong.

palladiate:ginandbacon: It's just shameful that we demonize these women and punish their children.

It's not shameful, it's immoral. I've yet to come across a religion that would do less than call that treatment immoral. And nearly every atheist I have met still has morals, of which this would still violate.

If you aren't a psychopath or Objectivist, ostracizing and belittling the poor and less fortunate should strike you as brutal and wrong.

The GOP, in their eternal desire to project, view welfare queens through their own personal experiences as corporate welfare queens. These fat-cats suck up the government money, provide no services or products of any use, and do live it up like they won the super-lotto on a weekly basis.

vpb:ManateeGag: contrary to their beliefs, not everyone on welfare wants to stay on it forever.

Does anyone? It doesn't sound like a high standard of living.

My cousin is one of those few who want to have a job only long enough to be able to qualify for unemployment. he's always looking for the easy way to do things. he's quite the embarrassment to the family and if his father wouldn't put up with that shiat if he were alive.

I lived most of my 20's below the poverty line. I now have a six figure (barely) income. The guy in the cube next to me has a similar story.

I don't understand how having lived through it he toes the party (GoP) line when it comes to the mythical welfare queen. I look at my life as a success story, but I have some natural advantages (I am fairly intelligent, white and male. That's a pretty good start.) I also see that social mobility like mine is becoming less and less possible as the wealth gap increases and the middle class shrinks. This is a direct result of "supply side", "trickle down", or "tax cuts for job creator" policies but the guy in the next cube is the embodiment of "I got mine, fark you!". Having lived so broke I don't understand how he can be so cold to people who genuinly need help and want nothng more than to be off public assistance.

Once a friend posted on their Facebook wall about my book, and somebody said, "You and your children should have just died instead of take money from the government."

Just a troll, thankfully. You see, genuine welfare abolitionists are THINKING that, but they generally don't actually SAY it.

How welfare changed meThose four years on welfare made me a better person. ... Today I budget very precisely, even with my six-figure income. All those years I would walk through a department store and know I couldn't afford to buy anything. I've never quite lost that. I have a mindset of, "I could buy that, but eh, it's not that important to me."

And here we see the difference between over-privileged middle-class idiots who run themselves into horrible consumer debt because they just "deserve" a certain material lifestyle, and someone who has stared privation in the face and survived.

Sadly she is one of the lucky ones: she got a few breaks like her parents agreeing to help her again (and just coming from a family that valued education and career). Without that luck, it's almost impossible for someone to pull themselves out of poverty, because simply surviving takes every moment, dollar and calorie of their life.

But don't forget that the GOP is the party of Jesus, from whom they derive their moral compass. So either Jesus is a sociopathic coont, or all Republicans are hypocritical, sociopathic coonts. It is absolutely either one or the other, with no possible third alternative.

Divorce is one of the biggest causes of women and children going on welfare. The lengths that some men (and yes, sometimes women) will go to to stop their CHILDREN from getting a dime is honestly beyond me. I've seen people go from staunchly middle class to welfare in a heartbeat if their ex starts playing around with child support and alimony, and there's only so much the legal system can do if the debtor/earner is self-employed or not employed at all.

Sure, there are some moochers out there, but in my experience, the vast majority want to get OFF welfare, and just don't have the means or ability to do so.

jst3p:I lived most of my 20's below the poverty line. I now have a six figure (barely) income. The guy in the cube next to me has a similar story.

I don't understand how having lived through it he toes the party (GoP) line when it comes to the mythical welfare queen. I look at my life as a success story, but I have some natural advantages (I am fairly intelligent, white and male. That's a pretty good start.) I also see that social mobility like mine is becoming less and less possible as the wealth gap increases and the middle class shrinks. This is a direct result of "supply side", "trickle down", or "tax cuts for job creator" policies but the guy in the next cube is the embodiment of "I got mine, fark you!". Having lived so broke I don't understand how he can be so cold to people who genuinly need help and want nothng more than to be off public assistance.

DarwiOdrade:God: I'll spare Sodom & Gomorrah for the sake of just 10 righteous people.GOP: If even one person abuses the welfare system, we must abolish it!

Actually, in this case, it's more like Democrats are Abraham, asking the GOP (god) to spare the city-state of Welfare if there can be found even 50 worthy recipients. (GOP says "No".) How about 40? (etc.)

// god says he'd spare S&G if there were even 10 worthy people// transitively, the GOP doesn't think there are 10 worthy people on welfare// either that or they're not god - I say both

jst3p:I lived most of my 20's below the poverty line. I now have a six figure (barely) income. The guy in the cube next to me has a similar story.

I don't understand how having lived through it he toes the party (GoP) line when it comes to the mythical welfare queen. I look at my life as a success story, but I have some natural advantages (I am fairly intelligent, white and male. That's a pretty good start.) I also see that social mobility like mine is becoming less and less possible as the wealth gap increases and the middle class shrinks. This is a direct result of "supply side", "trickle down", or "tax cuts for job creator" policies but the guy in the next cube is the embodiment of "I got mine, fark you!". Having lived so broke I don't understand how he can be so cold to people who genuinly need help and want nothng more than to be off public assistance.

There isn't merely one lesson to be learned in any struggle. One lesson is as you learned, that it's easiest to break free of the struggle when there is assistance available. Another is that struggling sucks and in order to avoid that struggle one should hoard all they can. One POV is that of cooperation, while the other is of competition.

He struggled and learned to be as selfish as possible in self-defense. He was probably never taught the importance of sharing and cooperation as a child, and was likely a selfish brat.

/was a selfish brat as a very young child//learned that nothing of value is gained without sharing and cooperation

dericwater:jst3p: I lived most of my 20's below the poverty line. I now have a six figure (barely) income. The guy in the cube next to me has a similar story.

I don't understand how having lived through it he toes the party (GoP) line when it comes to the mythical welfare queen. I look at my life as a success story, but I have some natural advantages (I am fairly intelligent, white and male. That's a pretty good start.) I also see that social mobility like mine is becoming less and less possible as the wealth gap increases and the middle class shrinks. This is a direct result of "supply side", "trickle down", or "tax cuts for job creator" policies but the guy in the next cube is the embodiment of "I got mine, fark you!". Having lived so broke I don't understand how he can be so cold to people who genuinly need help and want nothng more than to be off public assistance.

Cue the Craig T. Nelson quote.

Holy shiat... did he just say... Wow. Yeah, that sounds about like my cube neighbor.

jgbrowning:jst3p: I don't understand how he can be so cold to people who genuinely need help and want nothng more than to be off public assistance.

Because he is cruel.

It's an unsatisfying reason, but it's the reason.

Because when you talk policy, it's sterile. You don't have to look at someone and say "I don't think you deserve any help". That serves a purpose - we don't want to hand out $1,000 checks without inquiring into the needs of the person taking them.

However, it also allows Randroids to say things like "Work or die. No freeloaders." It makes them feel like they're not freeloaders - they have jobs, after all - and they think it will encourage others to work harder and give the ol' bootstraps another tug rather than consigning them - and their families - to a penniless fate. In the richest country in the world, the idea that people starve or lack basic needs is unconscionable.

jst3p:skullkrusher: Rapmaster2000: I didn't read the article, but I assume a job creator gave her some bootstraps.

nah, her parents paid for her night classes. You'd think that they'd have helped her earlier.

They tried, but she married him anyway.

hehe after that. What sort of parents tell their kid to fark off and struggle because he or she made a choice that they disapproved of? It's not like she was a drug addict or alcoholic where support can be a form of enabling. She was just broke with 2 of their grandkids to care for

redmond24:It was intersting to suddenly see, during Sandy, that government assistance and "handouts" were okay.

People needed diapers, water, shelter and the government helped.

Guess what --- there are people living like that EVERY DAY. But lets not help those people out.

Yes, funny how that works out.

I am glad that assistance was available to them. I am sure that many of them have invented complex narratives to explain away the contradiction. Self-affirming biases are an amanzing psychological trick.